


Depth

by 0ddEye



Series: Depth [1]
Category: Splatoon
Genre: Fan Characters, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-12
Updated: 2018-10-12
Packaged: 2019-08-01 05:14:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16278401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/0ddEye/pseuds/0ddEye
Summary: A sanitized octoling, known as defective and disobedient, fights against all odds and reaches a hand up to the sky, in hopes of one day seeing the real sun. Follow his adventure through thick and thin to reach the surface and save his friend from the grasp of Kamabo inc and its army of sanitized octarians.





	Depth

**Author's Note:**

> It is nice to be writing again, I have been on standby for a long while, as my call for writing had died off a bit. I was unable to write anything that I really enjoyed, and so I decided to stick with short stories and 1 ups to make it easy.   
> But now I'm back with a new series, this series features me and my friend StasisCorrupt's work, and I really hope you enjoy it, as we did while building these two's story! 
> 
> For a more immerssive experience, and if you're a slow reader, I'd suggest you to listen to Little Nightmare's OST - The Hideaway, on loop until the end~ 
> 
> Good reading!

A soft breath.  
A finger on the trigger.  
Eyes darting straight on its target.  
This target came to be an inkling, a she. Walking across the path, she held a splattershot close to her body. The yellow inkling was alert. Aware of the danger peering for a chance to strike her down. 

The octoling stayed still as his mind went blank, only but a word was uttered, resonating within.

shoot.

The boy, watching from above, shot a direct hit towards the inkling. The girl although caught onto the whistling sound of the charger, dodging the ray of ink by a few millimetres.   
She quickly darted away before a second shot was fired, trying to find shelter from the tower's view. Only then could she think of a strategy to bring him down, as she knew that this emplacement for a sniper meant that there were others around. He was but an eye to watch over them all. 

So far she had been lucky no one else had dared to cross her way. Coloring the path under her feet, she panted as she slid behind a wall, bringing her back to thud against the concrete. Not a sound, she couldn't tell if anyone was approaching or if the sniper had moved location.

Peering behind the wall, she brought her breath to a halt.  
A figure, menacingly holding a roller up, was scanning the area.   
A female octoling, clothed in traditional octoling armor, her tentacles of a royal blue fading to a toxic looking green curled upwards, which covered some of her face. The only thing left to see was her shades, displaying a blaring red dot, a grim sight to see. She wore with pride the algae headset, which was enough to tell the inkling that she was facing an elite. 

As she quickly twisted back behind the wall, she gasped as she met face to face with the barrel of the charger, inches away from her face. 

The boy holding it looked emotionless, his skin of a sickly green, dulled tentacles and the same traditional armor that his team elite wore. She could tell none of these octolings were like the ones she once faced. They used to nag, giggle and taunt, these ones were eerily silent and their shots were deadly accurate. 

Behind the metal mask were hidden eyes that looked just as dead, yet a twinkle passed through them as the inkling looked back. She was awaiting for him to shoot, or she would shoot back.   
Yet, he couldn't get himself to do it, his gun trembled, his unsure finger resting on the trigger. 

Noticing this moment of weakness, she did not hesitate to shoot right on his chest, making the octoling whine as he backed off, lowering his aim on her.  
She brought the point of her splattershot up, aiming for his head, before a powerful dash of ink was splattered her way, she barely had the time to dodge, sleeves covered in what looked like ink, but felt nothing like it.

It was green, sticky and heavy. It looked sickly, she didn't want to try and brush it off, afraid of the consequences she would meet if she touched the goop. Raising her gaze to see her attacker, her eyes were reflected through the shades of the elite, roller up and ready to strike as she stood protectively in front of her comrade.  
The inkling took a run for it, knowing that this blow would be her last if she tried to face that elite. Their hits were way more damaging... 

As the inkling ran off, the elite stood still, waiting.

The boy brushed off the ink resting on his chest, shaking his hand to spray away the yellow.

"You hesitated."

A dead voice rose from the elite's mouth, turning to face the boy. He stayed silent, lowering his head as he bit his lip. 

"I'll have to report it to our superior."

Her voice was emotionless, still. Like a single tone from a telephone. The octoling let out a small whine.

"Ren, please I-!"

He tried to debate before being cut by the elite.

"Non negotiable."

The boy felt chills run up his spine. He was afraid. Unlike all his comrades, he was left able to feel, it was both a blessing and a curse within this facility;  
For years on end it had been like this. Train, defend, hunt, fail.   
He was unable to do the job, he was defective and he knew it well, but he also knew of the consequences spoken by Ren.   
He would be punished for being unresponsive. 

As the octoling kept his head low once more, two more octolings showed, both female. They gathered close to the elite, giving their report. The first spoke, her tone similar to their elite’s.

"She escaped."

Ren stared back for a moment, knowing that this failure might hit her team's success rate on the chart. But then again, their failures always had the same source.  
She turned to face the boy, as did both octolings. 

It was always him.

He had brought down his goggles, looking back at the three with worried eyes.

"Sorry?"

He said softly while cracking a small uncertain grin, trying to kill the silence. But as he knew, all his teammates were dead. There was no point in trying to bring life to a walking husk by cracking a joke..

 

\----

 

The boy hustled, following suit to Ren as she guided him through the corridors of the facility. Though at this point, he would have known the path by heart himself, for the number of times he had to go meet their superior.

"Ren...?"

He dared to ask. He wanted to maybe clear out his name for this one time. He didn't feel like having to go through punishment again. He knew that sometimes she would crack and avoid telling anyone about his slip ups. But today wasn’t a lucky day.

"You did not listen to orders. I have to do what I have to do, Omei..."

The soft utter of his name somehow made a wave of relief wash through him. She wasn't gone in there, she still remembered him... The octoling didn't know how Ren kept holding onto her memories. 

Her memories, something so important, almost completely washed away by this tainted ink. 

That is what it was, to be sanitized, ripped of one’s will, one’s self. To become a mindless puppet for the higher ups to toy with, used for their own benefits. This ink, once injected into one’s body, would kill any living cell and replace an octoling’s normal ink flow for this corrupted goop, transforming the host into a dead husk. The moment it reached the hearts, it was over. 

Ren had went through the whole process, the image of a perfect sanitized subject. Obedient, precise, strong. She had been modified for this purpose after all. The elite had received implants for more stamina, more strength, She could fling her roller faster than any normal octoling, and hold a hunt for longer than anyone could, or should. She was like the perfect guard dog.

For Omei’s situation, it was trickier. The boy’s body was resisting, holding a fight against the sanitized ink, as it never reached his hearts. A clear circle of untouched skin was noticeable on his chest, sign that he hadn’t fallen yet, and wasn’t planning to anytime soon, thing that frustrated many. All of his team hated his carefree and aloof attitude, as he constantly ignored orders. He resisted the hypnoshades’ commands, as far as removing them during missions, which was completely forbidden. He would even crack jokes at the worst possible times, which got Ren in trouble multiple times, to the point where he himself had stopped, scared of risking his only friend’s life. 

He was a walking disaster, a failure.

A defective, disobedient soldier. 

And as far as Ren knew, she couldn’t protect him much longer from the rage that their superiors would soon drop on him, if he wasn’t to let the sanitization win the fight.

"Com'on... She just looked so helpless and lost! Think about it it’s so rare that we even see an inkling here! Don't you wonder how she got there?"

The boy asked in wonder, bringing his hand to his chin as he looked over to the elite, eyes twinkling in curiosity. Had she felt it too? When she met the inkling’s gaze?  
This feeling was not shared, as Ren was not “happy” to see this girl on their grounds. Her presence meant nothing good, as it was extremely rare to see an inkling roaming about this close to Kamabo.

"She was not helpless, she shot you without hesitation. It is not of our business to know what she was doing here. Our superior will handle it.” 

She spoke before reaching a large metal door. The pad beside it flashed once, before displaying in bold letters

-present prints-

“Now stop asking questions.”

The elite said as she raised her hand, hovering it over the screen before it happily chirped, displaying her registered number.

-9880-

Omei had received the number 9888, as he was 7 recruits after Ren, even though he knew he was 3 years younger than her. 

The door loudly slid, opening the path for Ren and Omei to walk in.  
The room was dark, lit with only the flashing lights of screens, half of them displaying multiple numbers and faces. Soldier codes, their role, their current location, all of it was noted and calculated, like the perfect melody of working cogs in a clock. The other half was the multiple views of surveillance cameras, flicking from one to another as the watcher of it all, an octoling, stood there in the middle of the room. Omei liked to call her “the Stalker”, Ren prefered to call her “superior”. Number 3 V4, was the watcher of all that happened to soldiers during their training sessions, and missions. She never left the control room, her eyes always onto the screens as it was her role. To watch. To listen. To follow. 

To Stalk.

The woman was busy checking screens and entering number data, but the moment she heard the footsteps stop, she spun, flicking her long blue and green tentacles around her. Her white vest stained with green, a crooked smile flashing on her otherwise dead looking face.

Though, when she saw who was coming for a visit, her smile cracked.

"9880. What is the matter."

She asked, although knowing too well who was the cause of it. She had not followed 9880's team today, but now she had regrets upon that decision, she knew that this young soldier had a gift to ruin everything he participated in. She dropped her glare onto the boy, who had taken slight shelter from her ghostly turquoise eyes behind his elite's back.

"9888 is misbehaving. Refused to shoot during enemy encounter."

Ren spoke like she was reading computer language. Omei simply gulped as he attempted to hide a little more behind Ren.

"Again?"

She stood up straight, pulling up her dirty sleeves before crossing her arms.

"Punishment will be required. Throw him down to the experiments. Let him be with his fellow beings."

She smiled, a smile that surely was not a sign of “happiness”.

"Yes ma'am. There was also an inkling sighting on our grounds. She escaped my team, she was heading East."

Ren claimed, her stance upright as any proper soldier would stand before a superior. Their superior’s eyes were suddenly stricken by something Omei couldn’t quite read.

“An Inkling?... How peculiar.”

She hummed, turning to her screens with her gaze lost, unsure on how and why she hadn’t noticed this intrusion, especially as it was her mission to watch over everything. But her eyes couldn’t be everywhere at once. As she attempted a rewind on some of her surveillance cameras, she scanned the buzzing screens with wild eyes as they quickly zoomed by, until she caught a glimpse of the yellow ink.

“Slippery little slug…”

She hissed between her fangs, once again spinning to her subjects, proudly standing with her chin up high, the ghostly stare was now down upon Ren, ignoring the presence of the subordinate. 

“I could punish your squadron for failing to complete your job, but I know why you failed to protect this perimeter, and know that it will be dealt with.”

She spoke as she dropped her stare upon Omei, who knew, at the one moment, that he was completely and utterly screwed.

"9888."

He could feel his knees tremble, his being wanting to run, his stomach churning and spinning. Nevertheless, there was nowhere to run, or hide, without risking his life OR Ren’s. With a breath, he walked a step away from his elite’s shadow, standing in the open for the Stalker to judge him.

"Yes ma'm?"

Her glare was as cold as ice, even if cold was the only thing the boy could feel at this point, this pure frigid stare pierced through his body, it was surely the coldest Omei had ever felt.

"If you disobey. One more time. You are to be reprogrammed." 

His heart sank, he could see from the corner of his eye Ren had suddenly gotten a little stiff herself.

Reprogrammed?

"Do I make myself clear?"

His mouth was dry, it took everything from him to say the words she wanted to hear.

"Y-yes ma'm."

Was all it took, unable to stabilize his voice. 

“Good. Take him away.”

She spoke as she waved her hand up, hushing away the soldiers as she spun back to her work.

The elite twisted on her heels, giving a small shove for the octoling to move back around to the door. Omei complied, anything to avoid this woman's cold and wicked aura.

 

As they both made their way out, Omei had almost fallen to his knees, shaken by the events. He could feel himself beginning to tremble, his hearts that had usually kept such a slow rhythm so far, felt like they were going to explode. 

Reprogrammed.

He would lose it all, his memories, his mind. Being reprogrammed was the last step for anyone’s life. It was complete erasure of one’s mind.  
Everything. Gone within mere minutes, to become a clean empty slate for Kamabo to corrupt and control... 

Ren had halted beside him, waiting for his outburst to end. She didn't know why, but she could feel a pain in her chest. She was feeling something. And that something couldn't belong within her, it wasn't proper for an elite.

"Come along."

She pressed him the moment she noticed his legs had stopped shaking like twigs, brushing away the feeling as if she had never let it in.

"Y-yes."

He complied as he picked up the pace with a body that felt as solid as his tentacles. All he could really concentrate on was the echo of their steps against the corridor walls. Even after having fought the terrifying idea of being reprogrammed, the octoling was still feeling sick. He was doing his very best to stand up straight and follow his superior’s steps, but the echoed rhythm of their shoes on the ceramic floor quickly evolved into a loud buzz within his head. He was taken by the feeling of being trapped within a small enclosure, losing the ability to take in a breath.

"Ren... I don't feel so good."

He muttered, his steps so uncertain and dizzy that he ended up shoulder against the wall. 

The elite spun her head, observing Omei. The view was what one would call terrifying, her ominous shades covering her face in a way that nobody could read her, not that there was much to read to begin with. 

Though to the young octoling, it was the sight of a rescuer, a protector, someone that would watch upon him no matter what. Oddly enough, even after having lost her will, she always protected him in dire situations. If she had been like any other elite. 

She wouldn’t even had looked back.

The elite approached him and carefully picked the boy up, holding him up as how one would carry their child. Omei rested his head upon her shoulder, watching as the surroundings became but blurs of white and grey.

\---

 

Dropping his feet on the ground, Omei took a long breath. Ren had brought him back to a familiar long white corridor, still lit with the blinding white neons. The left right side was covered in window that gave out to a story bellow. A training room, one of the many that existed in the building. This one was rank B, made to train young recruits that were just enrolled who went through the complete sanitization process. The place was brightly lit, a bunch of random platforms were placed around to function as an obstacle course. It was littered with different types of targets, most if them shaped like squids. Even though Omei knew this training ground was used everyday, the facility's equipment always looked brand new, without a scratch, as if they kept being replaced by new ones overnight... Not like there was really a nighttime here.

Except from him, and the new recruits going through the sanitization process, nobody needed sleep. The place was awake at all times, it was getting harder to follow for the poor octoling. He still needed basic needs, food and sleep, unlike his superior, who was never hungry to be able to share her finds for the boy, or sleepy enough to join him for a nap. 

Omei felt robbed, his friend was dead, physically and mentally. As what Sanitization does.

But why didn't it work on him? Why does his body keep fighting and still refuses to let go?

"Walk."

Ren said as Omei was now sure enough that he could stand without wiggling at each step. 

Marching side by side, they passed the training ground, ignoring the loud shooting and the consistent buzzing of the alarm, indicating for the next recruit to run the course. Even with all of it behind windows, it felt like they were standing in the middle of it all.

It didn't seem to bother Ren, as she walked her path straight, her heels clacking on the ceramic ground. They reached the door at the end of the blank corridor. This door was unlike the others, as it looked used up, contrasting anything in this place which was all so clean, white, bright. Fake. 

The door was of an old grey, a few signs stamped on the metal. One stood out the most, a toxicity warning of a flashy yellow and black, and in bold letters 

"Personnel only

Toxic zone"

Charming.

No warning for required equipment, of course not, accounting that the lost souls that worked here were to be thrown into the world and die all over again. Their deaths meant nothing significant for the mastermind behind Kamabo.

As long as they became the ultimate race, for him, nothing was in vain. Even if it meant killing over a million of octolings. 

Once unlocked with the old rusty key Ren carried, the door opened to a dark abyss, nothing like the previous corridors and halls of the building. The stairs disappeared into the darkness, the sound of droplets hitting the concrete far within resonated up to their ears. This eerie entrance was almost mystifying, inviting you within its dark mouth.  
Fortunately, the young octoling had experience with this place, this old creaking door and creepy staircase was not getting to him at all. In fact, he seemed rather calm. 

"You know what to do."

The elite spoke as she handed an empty bucket to her protégé. It was rusty, the bottom stained with different fluids and an awful stench was emanating from it. 

"Fill the bucket, feed the big boys, fill the report and go back up. NO forgetting to lock the door."

He counted on his fingers, amused, as he took the large bucket from her hands.

"I know.~"

He mused as he looked up to Ren, smiling softly. As he expected, there was no visual response, but he hoped that deep within, she could feel a little bit of warmth to heat up the cold unmoving hearts within her.   
As he took his first steps down in the darkness, Ren's voice echoed.

"Most important. Do not slack off."

"I won't !"

He claimed without looking back. He knew what he had to do, he could make it quick, like a bandage over fresh wounds. As he walked down the stairs one by one, his only main source of light slowly diminishing as the elite closed the door behind him, leaving the octoling in the embrace of darkness.


End file.
